The present invention is directed to the fabrication of a lithium ion-conducting electrolyte material.
Ion conducting polymer electrolytes with ionic conductivities on the order of 10xe2x88x923 S/cm at ambient temperatures have been prepared by incorporating non-aqueous liquid electrolytes into polymer matrices. For example, in a lithium cell, the anion of the lithium salt is bonded to the polymer matrix thus resulting in single ionic conductivity upon dissociation of the salt in the non-aqueous media. Because of the presence of volatile organic plasticizers (non-aqueous liquid) these electrolytes suffer from poor dimensional and thermal stability. In addition they are very susceptible to degradation through corrosion/passivation reactions with lithium metal electrodes. Thus, it is desirable to improve the operating characteristics of electrolytes and to overcome these and other operational limitations inherent in electrochemical devices. One way of overcoming the limitations of the materials currently used in the electrochemical art is to develop and investigate new materials for their potential application in electrochemical cells.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,133, issued Aug. 3, 1999, to Lawrence G. Scanlon, Jr., I disclose an electrolyte composition consisting essentially of a major amount of a lithium phthalocyanine and a minor amount of a polymer binder, and an electrolyte composition consisting essentially of aligned and spaced lithium phthalocyanine rings, wherein alignment and spacing of the phthalocyanine rings is achieved through the use of ladder type polymers, comb-like polymers, or crystalline polymers. I have now found that the polymer binder and/or the spacing polymers can be eliminated, thus providing an electrolyte consisting solely of a lithium phthalocyanine.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel lithium ion-conducting materials which can be used as an electrolyte.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an electrolyte consisting of a di-lithium phthalocyanine.